1 My soul is weary of my life. I will give free reign to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me. Show me why thou contend with me.
3 Is it good to thee that thou should oppress, that thou should despise the work of thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
4 Have thou eyes of flesh? Or do thou see as man sees?
5 Are thy days as the days of man, or thy years as man's days,
6 that thou inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin,
7 although thou know that I am not wicked. And there is none that can deliver out of thy hand?
8 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about, yet thou destroy me.
9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou have fashioned me as clay. And will thou bring me into dust again?
10 Have thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
11 Thou have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 Thou have granted me life and loving kindness, and thy visitation has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things thou hid in thy heart. I know that this is with thee.
14 If I sin, then thou mark me. And thou will not acquit me from my iniquity.
15 If I be wicked, woe to me. And if I be righteous, yet I shall not lift up my head, being filled with shame, and looking upon my affliction.
16 And if [my head] exalts itself, thou hunt me as a lion. And again thou show thyself marvelous upon me.
17 Thou renew thy witnesses against me, and increase thine indignation upon me. Changes and warfare are with me.
18 Why then have thou brought me forth out of the womb? I would have given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little
21 before I go where I shall not return, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death,
22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as midnight.